The demise of the six second video

3 November 2016

Vine’s focus on short videos pushed creators to ensure content was impactful; it encouraged us to be brave and bold, and remove all the fluff.

Mercieca

Last week, from almost nowhere, it was confirmed Twitter owned video platform Vine was closing. Is our Social Media Manager mourning its loss?

“Vine was a social network that allowed users to publish video content lasting a maximum of six seconds. It was revolutionary and challenging – what can you really do in six seconds? Well, as it turned out, quite a lot!

The introduction of Vine five years ago invigorated social media, encouraging users to consider video content. Aside from YouTube (and Vimeo, Vevo etc.), Vine was the world’s first serious foray into visual communication advancing on still imagery. Yes you could post videos on some networks but there was no community built on video content.

YouTube hadn’t yet cemented its place as a community network– more an archive of content. Vine’s focus on short videos pushed creators to ensure content was impactful; it encouraged us to be brave and bold, and remove all the fluff. There was no time for intros. You had to know what you were going to do or say. And make sure it fitted into six seconds.

Short impactful video capability soon grew to other platforms – Snapchat became the flash new kid on the block and Instagram started to branch out from still visuals. Vine’s six second video began to lose its appeal with more video capability growing on other networks, despite its position as the catalyst in the growth of social video.

But with it came one extremely important aspect of our online lives; influencers. It was probably the first platform to allow users to become stars. We wanted to follow people. Not celebrities but real people: budding comedians, musicians and magicians, for example. It was through Vine that anyone could become a star – create an audience, a community of their own without traditional media investment.

So where do these social celebrities go now? The answer is easy… nowhere. The social world moves at such a pace that if you don’t have presence on a variety of networks, then you risk being caught out. While Vine was a platform to transform the normal person into a star, the stars themselves could not have grown their communities and presence without activity on other prominent channels.

So is anybody really suffering from the loss of Vine? Apart from sentimental pain, no! The celebrities made in six seconds now boast thousands of viewers on YouTube as their audiences and communities began to require more content, more education and more entertainment. Whilst they stayed true to producing content in six seconds, these stars saw the potential of advertising revenue on YouTube and Instagram as well as the influencer clout of Facebook and Twitter.

While we might all be thinking ‘that’s kind of sad’, the pockets of the YouTube stars and Instagram influencers aren’t so fussed.”